At least 50 staffers were reportedly laid off ahead of schedule at Sirius XM Radio Inc. today, accelerating the company's termination plans due to leaked information. According to Radio & Records, the mayhem began yesterday, when an employee accessed the internal Ultipro payroll site and was surprised to find a termination date of October 15th next to their name. Within moments fellow staffers were alerted as other employees logged in to learn their fate.
R&R further reports that an emergency management meeting was reportedly held Monday afternoon, and the formal termination memos from HR issued shortly afterward.
Among those said to be in this round of cuts: Eight-and-a-half-year vet Kurt Gilchrist, senior PD of XM's Decades channels; George Taylor Morris of XM Deep Tracks and senior director of original programming; Kandy Klutch, from XM '80s on 8; John Clay PD of XM's '70s on 7; PD Billy Zero and "Dean of Music" Tobi from XMU; alternative channel Ethel MD Erik Range and jock Rick Lambert; and Bill Hutton, PD of classic alternative channel Lucy.
Radio & Records also is hearing that while some are leaving immediately, other staffers are staying for another couple of weeks, when a second wave of terminations may come.
Sigh... Looks like a lot of long-timers... which figures, since they were "reprogrammed" to get away from the FM mentality that Sirius XM will likely begin moving towards... I don't see this ending well.
I'm holding on tight for this ride, but I'm ready to let go should things not appear to be going well to me.
Have to get rid of the dead weight. To the victor go the spoils, and Sirius was the "winner" in this takeover, so most of their people get to take over.
Face facts: the playlists and programming quality on both services are nowhere near as good as they were when satrad first started. They can't screw it up much more than they already have.
And if you don't like it, vote with your subscriptions. Whining on blogs and message boards doesn't even register on the radars of the powers that be. They only understand the almighty dollar.
Ron & Fez, Noon to 3.
Believe me, if I don't like the results, all four of my subs are out the door. I have every intention of voting with my subscriptions if I don't like what happens.
Nobody will care if you cancel Mike, so you would be just hurting yourself.
There will be a few hundred or thousand like you that will maybe cancel and it will pass without any damage to the co's.
It is part of a much bigger picture of structuring the company to be much more lean and competetive.
The content will continue to be unbelievable, although some really nice niche stations that have a following will have to go away and some people will not be too happy.
By year-end, most changes would have been already made, maybe much sooner.
Masters at their work, all. XM will never be the same.
Goodbye Lucy
Goodbye XM Decades
I liked Kandy on 80s on 8. I like the Big 80s DJs too.
In the end the one I am most disappointed with is Bill Hutton and Lucy. I loved Lucy. I hate Lithium. I guess its my MP3s when I am in the mood for alternative from the 90s.
Don’t worry as soon as I hear my favorite stations are axed. I will be done and satellite radio will be out of my life. Call me a baby. I don’t pay for shit music programming. That is what Sirius offers. I am a subscriber to Sirius too but not for there music. So many aspects of there music channels suck but I have gone on and on about it before. XM is far from perfect but better then Sirius in the music department. Nice while it lasted though. Seems to me Mel should just announce all XM subscribers will now have Sirius Satellite Radio channels because all of XM’s have been axed. Appears to me that’s what there slowly but surely doing. Hope I’m wrong. By the way "leader of pests" what would your reaction be if Opie and Anthony and Ron and Fez were axed? Would you still be saying dead weight needs to go?
I have the same sentiments as everyone else that is upset over the XM layoffs. Unfortunately that is how the corporate world is. The thing I would like to be able to see is if there is any reasoning for who was let go and who wasn't. I know we will never see this, but it would give us some interesting insight into how many people are really getting screwed becasue they haven't "puckered up" enough or are really the person with the least credentials.
Erik was a great guy. I remember the day the merger was announced calling them up and he asked me on the air what I thought of the merger. He said they were all trying to make sense of what it would mean. I wished him luck and everything...guess it wasn't worth too much.
Wow, 50 is a lot. I hope my XM sub either switches soon to sirius channels, or they keep the same level of commitment to their jobs.
As I have said before, after careful consideration I chose XM over Sirius for the music. If they change or eliminate Lucy and especially Fred I am gone. I have more choices for my musical needs and I will explore them. I'll miss MLB and NHL broadcasts but they are not worth 4 subscriptions.
I understand the need to cut costs to remain viable. I just hope they take a long hard look at who they get rid of and why. When the companies merged XM still had more subscribers. Without Stern the difference is even larger. They should ask why more people prefer XM and do what they can to keep them. It doesn't seem prudent to alienate a majority of their subscribers.
Just my 2 cents.
Why is anyone surprised???
They have to start saving some money.
Please please PLEASE leave SQUIZZ alone! Octane BLOWS compared to SQUIZZ.
(Thank you) :)
As I have read Orbitcast and xmfan.com over the last few hours, I am reminded how radio--in this context, satrad--bonds so many people from so many different places. In my adolescence and my 20's, I remember how I felt when there were staff and format changes to my favorite stations. When DJs left, I lost friends. When a station changed format, I lost a community. Multiply that several times over and this is my reaction to the XM Nation's pink-slip two-step. It reminds me of the Pretenders' song, "My City Was Gone."
When trauma occurs, there needs to be closure, a time to heal. In many ways, this is traumatic. Perhaps time will help, and healing will begin. There will be scars, yes, but also good memories.
I know that a relocation requirement was a likely reason for some... which is kinda odd to me, because I thought XM's DC facility was supposed to still be used in the merged company, given the investment that has been put into making it a high-quality broadcast facility, and the fact that it is OWNED, not LEASED, by the company. I'd think that they would want to SAVE MONEY by getting rid of unnecessary lease payments for their expensive space in New York, and keep their programming staff in a facility owned by the company, equipped up one side and down the other with amazing broadcast equipment. But that's just me.
Another possible reason is that some probably had no desire to go back to doing "regular radio" gigs. Remember that Sirius has been described in the past as "commercial-free FM". After working for XM for years, being able to share your creative freedom with listeners who appreciate it, would you want to go back to having your creativity stifled by programming execs who want you to play only the hits?
And I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons as well...
Kandy gone, I loved the Kandy top 5.
And most of all Hutton gone. Lets put it this way. The second Hutton involuntary leaves, is the moment XM is out 6 active radios.
crap.. cant remember my log in info...
anyway.. this is a leak from within XM...
Who says the same is not happening at Sirius in NYC?
However, I have noticed the dumbing down of the play lists on XM to the Sirius format... Disturbing... my subscription will NOT be renewed. As of now I am not upset enough to cancel, but its getting close.
The big thing I fear is that rather than learning what XM did right, they are suffering from a "Not Invented Here" mentality. Unless we start seeing evidence that Sirius made similar cuts, that's what I think will happen.
I predict commercials on all music channels within 2 years.
Another thing I noticed is there is more and more of a cult mentality like Stockholders. SiriusBuzz isn't reporting on this at all, and recent news articles about the stock having negative points make the holders attack TMF and CNet. It IS a risky value, so I'm becoming more concerned about this.
Jessie Scott, who runs X-Country was listed among the casualties. Which pretty much negates any hope I ever had of returning to satellite radio. I will just buy an iPod touch and see what the Flycast service is like. Getting signal won't be a problem since I have wifi at home.
And there are infinite number of listening possibilities among internet radio, and of course there is pandora which is suited to my tastes.
Losing George Taylor-Morris is horrible. He MADE Deep Tracks and Top Tracks two of the most amazing channels. The Sirius versions just don't compare. Add to it that George is just a great, great guy. I've had the pleasure of attending YES shows with him...he's incredibly knowledgeable about real rock music. What a friggin' loss. The first major decision made by the Sirius guy in charge of rock is a terrible, terrible move.
Wow. Going into this merger my big fear was that what I liked about XM that made it different from Sirius would be changed. Sure enough it happened. My favorite music channel on XM is the 70s on Seven. John Clay was brought on a few years ago when the channel was awful. There was no structure and the play list was random and hard to listen to at length. John came in and revamped that channel and made it great. Excellent play lists, great clips from 70s movies and television, cool original material like 70's slang, and fun holiday specific material from the decade for Halloween, Christmas, etc. He always came across like he sincerely liked the music and loved his job. Now the station will go back to the shitty un-manned bore it was just a few years ago. What a fucking disappointment.
People who are leaving comments here aren't cry babies; they are people like me who are disappointed that something they loved is being destroyed before their eyes. Those of us who have XM hung in there hoping that this merger wouldn't end up turning XM into Sirius. In my personal opinion I think totally 70s on Sirius stinks. Cheesy DJs that mock the decade and play the same limited hits day in and day out. I can ditch my XM in protest, but it's still going to hurt. I could program an ipod, but I got XM because I enjoy the feel of a live medium. It keeps music, even familiar music, feeling fresh.
Because I am a faithful listener to the Opie and Anthony Show (go ahead trash my whole post for that one comment) I will keep one subscription. I will be deactivating three radios because I don't want to continue to support Mel's Massacre of XM. What a complete let down. Boo!
And i forgot to mention that back in the day he was on Friday nights, and I would take dates down to the ocean and we'd call in the show. I'd make a request of whatever my date wanted, and Erik would play it very next song- with a shoutout. Made me look badass, and Erik's a pimp. That happened 3 or 4 times haha. never got old.
This is why I'm glad I primarily listen to the Talk channels. My channels (Howard, Martha, OutQ, NPR) aren't going anywhere.
All I can say is WOW.
I knew there would be layoffs, but some of these people are radio legends. Toby, Billy, Hutton, GTM and Lambert were some of my favorites.
Mike V, I'm in the same boat as you. I will see what happens in the near future with many of my favorite channels. If things get worse, I may vote with my (lack of) subscriptions as well.
....and I may have to change my screen name :(
iBand, you do know Morris is leaving because of an illness, right?
Sorry, I forgot to sign in on my last post but....
All I can say is WOW!
I knew there would be cuts, but some of these guys are legends. Billy, GTM, Tobi, Hutton and Lambert were some of my favorites.
I am in the same boat as many of you guys here (Mike V, iBand). If things get worse on the music side, I WILL be voting with my (lack of) subscriptions.
Everything that made XM great and unique are starting to vanish.
.....and I may have to change my screen name :(
Christ, what a pussy.
hopefully they save all the hard drives to all the axed channels ya might need em someday should xm ever become a stand alone company agian
Where are all those people who were telling us the merger would give us more "choice"?
Looks to me it is giving us more crap instead.
Ha. The Karmizanization of satellite radio. Isn't it fun to watch?
I'm going to really miss Rick Lambert from Fred on 44. One of my all-time favorite shows was "One Revolution Around the Sun" with Lambert every Thursday. I'm glad I have several hours on my Inno... but that was an awesome show... along with Tsunami.
Some people were bound to be disappointed by the lay offs we all knew were coming. And honestly both companies play lists had gotten a little shallow over the last couple of years. Satellite needs to remember it's strengths lie in uncensored content, commercial free, and variety of programming.
I am so sad to see so many good people go. I believed in what we were doing. As you might guess I'm Washington employee. I haven't been told to go...yet. I actually am afraid I'll have to stay and work in this tomb. At least the folks going now have some financial backup. If I'm not asked to go then there's no package for me...I have to find something else before I get out...but I don't know if I'll go in tomorrow. The New York folks... uggh.......Howard plus FM without commercials is all it's about. No interest in making fans of satellite radio...just subscribers. Oh Lee, I miss you.
Sounds like what Vince McMahon did when he took over the WCW and ECW pro wrestling companies. He had to prove his WWF boys were better by trashing the two companies he bought. Oh well, at least his stock is worth $15.24, up 42 cents today!
I'm really starting to think this merger was a bad idea, I mean sure XM subscribers like me now get the NFL, NASCAR and some of Sirius's college sports but reading about the music channels, hmm is all I have to say. If the Sonic Sound Salutes and Wolfman Jack on XM 6, Casey Kasem's AT40 on XM 7, Casey Kasem's AT40 and Rick Dees Top 40 on XM 8 and Rick Dees WT40 on XM 9 all aren't kept after whatever happens to the decade channels happens I will be very ticked off.
Wow. I mean, I stayed with XM through a lot of channel changes and stuff I didn't like. I missed Radio Taj, Special X, On the Rocks... and a few others who either were dropped or otherwise changed. But this is even worse than I imagined even a few weeks ago after the merger was finalized. So many assurances that the programming wouldn't suffer, that XM wouldn't be gutted to make it a bastard child to Sirius.
Where are the cuts from Sirius? Will there be any? (Maybe they also have some surprises coming tomorrow, just theirs' didn't leak?) I tell you what. I got an iPod Touch at the right time. Two cancelled subs = $20 a month I can download music from iTunes. (I'm sure I could sell the receivers and boombox I won't be using, but I'd rather break it and ship it to Mel's office. Sounds like this might result in more of that than the O&A thing)
But that's not what I want. I want XM. The way it was. I want to be able to discover new artists, new music, new styles that I've never heard before. That's why I signed up for XM, and why I've enjoyed all 2,566 days of it. But it looks like that's ending. Soon.
oh good grief.
to hear a lot of these whining little babies talk, there would be 100 music channels, 50 of sirius, 50 of xm that both played the same genre on the two services even though they are the same company. it would be like coke merging with pepsi, but still deciding to keep both brands even though they are the same company. some channels are going to go away. the purpose of this merger is to save money by consolidation and then if they decide to, use those savings and develop more channels. but come on. realistically, there were not going to be two seperate music offerings offering the same thing in the same company. you would have to be some sort of delusional idiot to think otherwise.
There has been so much emotion lately on the boards of Orbitcast and it goes beyond people just losing their jobs. Throughout the past couple of years as I became a fan of XM and a daily reader of Orbitcast I believed in the power of Satrad as a medium that so many people could enjoy because they could connect with exactly what they wanted to hear on the radio, instead of the same old crap on the AM/Fm dials. And during this time, like many of us I turned my friends and family on to XM over Sirius because of the the variety of music channels that the company offered. I knew that there were going to be cuts at XM, post merger but it sounds like a lot of us feel betrayed and angry because of it. I share similar to feeling to almost every body that has written about this topic. I feel that my two subs are at a crossroads. Should I stay on and see where is going to take us? Or should I stay loyal to the company that I grew to love and is no longer around? I feel torn, and angry.
During this time I grew to enjoy the vast offerings from XM, from 110 XM Classics, to XM 65 The Rythme. I was turned on to music that I would never hear, ever on XMU, XM Cafe and really enjoyed it when XM had the Coldplay and Straight Country channels. And I would always crack up at Ice Ice Baby on Ninties on 9 because it reminds me of high school. Although the main reason that XM has a great company wasn't because they had every MLB game all season long, it was because they have XM 175, Homeplate, and the amazing hosts on that channel. Once I found that channel I was sold. It is still #1 on my presets.
So I really still don't know what to do. It sounds like every thing is downhill from here for the companies programming that I really fell in love with across the board. And I think mostly it just makes me sad.
If Pepsi bought Coke or Coke bought Pepsi, no CEO--unless he had an ego the size of Mt. Everest--would EVER kill the other soft drink. Killing the competition does not automatically make you the winner or double your sales.
I don't think people are mad about the consolidation so much as they are mad that Sirius seems to be moving all their crap over without even considering the benefits of XMs music. And this has the potential to cause customers to cancel and further hurt things.
Why are we attacking Sirius, when XM management is really to blame. They didn't have to merge with Sirius. No one seemed to have a gun pointed to their head. XM has had superior music variety. The posts I have seen is blaming Mel and Sirius. The people running XM didn't know how to run the business, that is why we are in the situation we are in. Virtually no advertising of their top talent, hacking channels that really diversified their offerings. etc... XM has only itself to blame and not sticking to their guns and riding it out and being smart about this whole merger. I am sad to see channels go, but really in the end, it is probably better.
Rick Lambery was one of the best on XM.. can't believe they let him go
bri is right. XM wasn't even hurting bad enough to merge. Blame XMs incompetent management if your going to blame anyone.
>>> the purpose of this merger is to save money by consolidation and then if they decide to, use those savings and develop more channels. but come on. realistically, there were not going to be two seperate music offerings
I don't think anyone should have been confused about this going in -- they made it abundantly clear they were going dump half the music channels.
OTOH, anyone who thinks it is going to lead to more "choice" is being an idiot. They are going to haul ass, as fast as possible, to shut down the Sirius bandwidth. Don't know how they're going to do it. But that's what's going to happen.
The savings from eliminating channels is NOTHING. Firing 100 people making 50k/y saves you, all in, 6 million/year. Hardly worth doing.
The goal is bigger. If you want real savings you're going to have to eliminate the use of SIRI's bandwidth altogether.
Good lord people, enough of the gloom and doom, it's like your dogs died or something. It doesn't look like they're killing off any unique channels. Is there really a difference between the Sirius and XM 70's channels? Does Sirius play too much Bee Gees, and not enough KC & the Sunshine Band?
If your channels do indeed change for the worse, then cancel and put those songs on your iPod. It's a pretty simple process.
: people making 50k/y
$50K a year? You just lost all credibility. XM PDs and MDs are all paid more than that and in most cases, significantly more. Especially those who've been there for awhile.
Just, you know...facts for the record.
- DC eXMer
Where are all those people who were telling us the merger would give us more "choice"?
--------------------------------------
Oh, stop it already, Stack. How could anyone think there was LESS choice unless they subscribed to both services at once? How many times are you going to dodge THAT reality?
I can guarantee there are people on this forum who never spent 5 minutes listening to XMU weepin' and a wailin' like they lost a war. If anyone DID listen to it, they would have kept it.
Look at the stations adjacent to XMU on the XM station list. As far as this demographic/music genre is concerned, XM's coverage ALONE was redundant. People are acting like those idiots who thought Western Civilization was dead when Dylan went electric.
People are defending variety for variety's sake. Unfortunately, the comfort of seeing another channel on the list is undermined by the cost of running it.
I guess i've been a bit too harsh about the whole combining channels thing, i'll give the new jocks and music channels a chance and maybe they'll be just as good as they previously were.
Why are we attacking Sirius, when XM management is really to blame...
In more ways than one, this management was the worst ever....not just the business department but in all departments. XM placed their friends in places (with no management experience) where managers should have been. The disrespect and treatment of employees that these managers were able to get away with (well almost) is, well, XM defined. Done!
I will never believe that enough money could not be found to have kept MATT THE CAT on XM 5. The guy gave it his all, he never slept he was always doing show prep how in the name of Alan Freed can they just cast him out like trash? Did they not hear ALL the calls to the show EVERY NIGHT? I dont just mean the core night-prowlers I mean from EVERY major city in EVERY state, to the interstates, highways and by-ways telling him how much they loved the show? He was/IS the best thing to happen to rock and roll in 50 years.
Matt has a following and was building a fan-base out of this world. XM 5 already feels like FM now, how nice that they ended the show with the theme that MTC used. He married the love of his life and when he gets back waiting for him is not a card or vase full of congratulatory flowers but a termination notice. What a shit thing to do to such a decent guy. He was loyal to XM I know this for a fact, and this is his reward, you idiots at XM remember whom it was that put all the extra effort in to make every show better than the last,every interview,every special was better than the last. Matt Balassari DID IT !! This will be my only post here so in advance of all the snide shitty remarks that I know will be made about this I'd like to say to Sirius/XM (both companies), pucker up and KISS MY ASS! Danny O'Donnell aka "The Pianoman" on the Matt The Cat Show
Welcome to regular robotic drone style music programming with one song after another. Don't the suits realize what made XM 50s fantastic and made us faithful followers? It's guys like Matt the Cat and Ken Smith. These guys added so much more it was unbelievable. I would have gladly paid another four bucks a month to hear these guys rather than HS. Sirius methodology sucks in my mind. They ruined a great thing. My four subscriptions are going to be toast unless they realize what is happening. Thanks Sirius for ruining such a great thing.
Who cares about a bunch of oldies stations playing the same old crap over and over. The real loss here is cancelling XMU.
They played good, new music, talked to the bands, had the bands come in and play their own music, went to concerts and festivals, and were REAL online personalities.
Billy and Tobi were the best they had on XM radio. Now we get crappy Left of Center which is one step above FM radio. Small selection of songs played over and over again.
Sirius can go straight to hell because my subscription will be cancelled.
In light of the layoffs, I submit the following:
An Open Letter to John Clay, outgoing PD of the '70s on 7:
Thank you... for two-plus years of '70s music, memories, music history, trivia, waking up to Casey Kasem informing us of new number-one songs on a given date and extra songs from artists celebrating birthdays.
You've tapped into the time in my youth when music was fresh and exciting, when the radio dial was a new frontier offering myriad music choices... a veritable auditory smorgasbord. It was a time when, in the space of ten minutes, I could hear everything from Led Zeppelin to America to Lou Rawls... on the same station! It was an era before pigeon-holed radio formats dictated what could (and could not) be aired on a particular station. In short, it was an exciting time to be a kid with a new transistor radio!
And for the past two years, thanks to you, I've had that time in my life back.
Over the years, things you've talked about on XM '70s on 7 have stuck in my memory. So...
* Nick Lowe's "Cruel to Be Kind," will always remind me to listen for a little "bark" sound partway through...
* When I hear the applause at the end of Billy Swan's "I Can Help," I'll think of that tenacious little pooch tugging at the guy's pant leg...
* The Main Ingredient song "Everybody Plays the Fool" triggers the recollection, "Oh yeah, that's Cuba Gooding, Sr. on lead vocals" - not that I ever would have known who he was, otherwise...
* Now that I know how future playwright Rupert Holmes deliberately set about to write a song that would get banned from the airwaves for its deplorable content, the Buoys' "Timothy" will forever creep me out (and thank you so much for that!)...
* I can't listen to a Boz Scaggs tune without remembering the guy in college who erroneously thought his name was Bosley...
* Looking Glass' "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" will evoke images of a wrought-iron fence surrounding an elevated gravesite in the middle of a shopping-center parking lot...
* Thanks to you, hearing Edison Lighthouse calls to mind the staid landmark on the Jersey shore...
* Further, whenever I hear the bright, complex brass sound of a Chicago song, it'll remind me of how founding member Walter Parazaider, after listening to the Beatles' "Got to Get You Into My Life," was inspired to form a band that prominently featured horns...
And finally, I'll never be able to listen to "House at Pooh Corner" without thinking about that time in April of this year, following a lively volley of emails, you called me at work (causing a stir among my co-workers, I might add) to play a snippet of the song, which had been rattling around in my head all morning.
In short, John, thanks for nearly two and a half years of good times, happy memories, a flood of excellent '70s music and literally thousands of hours of all-around enjoyable listening. I'll miss you!
Fondly,
Rita R.
Connecticut
Another one they should have included in the list is Mel. Mel, if you are reading this-You are the destroyer of satellite radio.
Mel Mel-May you burn in HELL!!!